America’s newest community organizer, Lady Gaga, will hold a rally in Portland, Maine today, specifically targeting two Senators who may be the difference between breaking a filibuster on the defense authorization bill and letting it slip away, along with the legislative repeal of the military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy.

Organizers say Lady Gaga is visiting Maine’s largest city to join a rally against the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gays.

The singer is expected to join a Servicemembers Legal Defense Network event near the University of Southern Maine’s Portland campus Monday. Network spokesman Trevor Thomas says she’ll stand alongside veterans discharged because of the policy, which forbids military recruiters from asking about people’s sexual orientations and prohibits service members from revealing if they’re gay.

Without Snowe and Collins, it is unlikely the Senate has the votes to get onto the defense authorization bill. We know there will be a motion to proceed at 12:15pm Tuesday, and all indications show that 60 votes have not been locked up. John McCain is leading the filibuster because he didn’t get what he wanted in committee. Even though Republicans will have an opportunity to strip out the DADT repeal, they want assurances on a bevy of other amendments, and will block debate on the bill without them. Collins voted for the DADT repeal and voted the bill out of committee, but now is speaking as if she’ll block consideration because of the lack of an “open process” for amendments. Scott Brown vowed not to filibuster the defense bill but is making the same noises. Snowe hasn’t said much.

They’re taking the fight right to Collins and Snowe — in a way that no other issue or group has. This event will be noticed in Maine. It’s so much smarter than bringing another celebrity to DC, where political media is so cynical. Again, Gaga has over 6,390,000 followers on twitter. And, she’s got over 18,255,000 fans on Facebook. No political organization in DC has anything that compares to that kind of outreach.

Lady Gaga has been using her extensive bully pulpit to elevate the DADT repeal issue for the past several weeks. It’s been very, very impressive. (Meanwhile, despite the impending vote and the GOP filibuster, President Obama has been largely silent on this issue, which, sadly, is not a surprise.)

This week, the action is in the Senate. Collins and Snowe are the targets. Now, they can’t hide. They’re going to have a very powerful spotlight on them, thanks to Lady Gaga and SLDN.

Maine is the best chance we have. If Collins and Snowe abandon the gay and lesbian servicemembers, it could be a long time before we get another vote.

The other part of this is that Republicans likely want to avoid a vote on the DREAM Act before the elections, and if the Senate can’t get on the defense authorization bill, where Harry Reid promised an amendment to that effect, they’ll have succeeded in avoiding it.

Servicemembers Legal Defense Network has identified these eight Senators as holding the key to passage of the motion to proceed:

Olympia Snowe is someone who, in the current state of the GOP, cannot win re-election as a Republican; the social conservatives have the upper hand and will defeat her in the 2012 primary even though she wins general elections quite handily.

This whole post was a waste of time. The local Obama loyalists assured me that DADT repeal was “as good as done”, that it wasn’t a matter of if but when. So it’s impossible that repeal can be in any kind of danger.

Voinovitch’s vote is very much in play. Phone calls hilighting how it hurts our military prepardness as opposed demanding equal justice will work well with him. I just called his office, the lady reports “a few” phone calls on the issue.

President Truman ended segreagation in the armed forces by executive order as Commander and Chief. We still have the same fuckheaded mentality in the year 2010. President Obama grow a set of fucking testicles and do the correct, moral, logical thiung to do. End discrimination in the armed services as Truman ended the segregation of dutiful,selfless, patriotic Americans who fought like hell and died to protect America and the world, and happened to be a different skin clor by the luck of the copulating genetic draw!

DADT is an abomination. Segreagation is dysfunctional. Discrimination and segregation are BULLSHIT and those who lack the testicular fortitude to do what is “RIGHT,” shut the fuck up and sit down losers……………

Senator Webb, would you not accept treatment on the battlefield from a fatal wound because the field medic it GAY?